GATHORNE-HARDY, Jason

1968 - ?

John Jason Gathorne-Hardy, known as Jason, Lord Medway, was born near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1968, eldest son of Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook (born 1933), zoologist and environmental biologist, and his wife CarolinenéeJarvis, who married at Chelsea in 1967. Young Jason grew up and lived at the family home at Great Glemham House, Suffolk. He trained as a zoologist at Oxford University and researching conservation biology at the University of Kent. Teaching himself to draw and paint in Suffolk, Spain and Austria, using graphite and earth pigments from the landscape and in 1993, took up full-time wood carving and painting. In 1995, he joined Maggi Hambling's [q.v.] life drawing classes at Morley College in London, studying for one day a week until 1998. Jason has exhibited at Chappel Galleries, Essex; The Aldeburgh Cinema Gallery, Sir Peter Pear's Gallery and the Concert Hall Gallery at Snape Maltings in Suffolk; and in London at The Strand Gallery, Reed's Wharf Gallery, The Pumphouse Gallery, The Mall Galleries, Northcote Gallery and The Redfern Gallery. In 2005, he founded The Alde Valley Food Adventures, a rolling programme of events that celebrate food, farming, lansdscape and the arts from White House Farm, Great Glemham, Saxmundham. His drawings and paintings feature in the Hiscox Collection, Jesus College Collection, the Adnams Collection, Milsoms' Hotel Kesgrave and in the White Lion Hotel in Aldeburgh. His drawings are also represented in private collections in Great Britain and abroad.